Keerai Vadai makes for a perfect evening snack. Its a famous thing in the evenings at South Indian tea shops. Its crispy and crunchy and goes perfectly well with tea. Its made with soaked and ground urad dal and added greens. Usually, Arai keerai or Siru keerai is used for this recipe. Its a variety of green amaranthus. You may use any kind of amaranth leaves and it works fine. Here is how to do Keerai Vadai.

Usually for vadai made with urad dal, I like to use unpolished whole white urad dal. Try to avoid split urad dal, nylon urad etc… Soak the urad dal in water for couple of hours. Drain the water used for soaking and grind the urad dal in a mixie to a paste. Do not add any water while grinding. Add a teaspoon if the mixie would not budge. Add it only if it is really necessary. The texture should be thick and very very slightly coarse for keerai vadai. Set aside.

Add in the finely chopped veggies namely onion, ginger, curry leaves, green chillies, coriander leaves and keerai. Add in the salt and asafoetida. If you like a spicy vadai, add in more chopped green chillies. Mix well to combine. Keerai vadai batter is ready.

I like to use SSP asafoetida at home. Its very aromatic and flavorful. You may buy the products here. To know more about their products visit their website www.sspandian.com .

Heat oil in a kadai until hot. Now lets shape the vadas. The trick to shaping the vadas is dipping the hands in water. The urad dal batter wont stick to hands if the hands are moist and wet. Take a gooseberry size ball on the palm and flatten it. Flatten it as a thin round. Make a small hole in the middle. If shaping the vada in the palm is difficult, you can shape it on a plastic cover. Just wet the plastic cover with a few drops of water and shape the vadas on the cover and gently remove the batter and add it to the oil.

Add it to hot oil. Keerai vadai takes time to cook. Around 5-6 minutes for every batch. The vadai should be really brown and golden. The vadai should be crispy and should have a little crunch on the bite. So be patient and fry till the vada is really golden.

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I’m Suguna, a former financial analyst, now a full-time food blogger. Welcome to my space. I share recipes gathered from my friends and family here. I am passionate about South Indian food. I crazy love knives. A sharp knife is a girls best friend. Hope you like the recipes here. Happy Cooking. Read more.....